Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W
by Jarred Walton on July 7, 2010 6:50 PM ESTTemperatures and Noise Level
As already mentioned, Antec uses an 80mm fan for cooling. They have chosen an ADDA fan with PWM control (AD0812XB-A78GL), so the regulation allows the manufacturer to start softly, which is definitely useful. Usually you need a high starting current to bring the fan into action. No we will see how loud the fan is in the practical tests.
| Sound Pressure Level | |
| Load | dB(A) |
| 10% | 18 |
| 20% | 19 |
| 50% | 19 |
| 80% | 24 |
| 100% | 28 |
| 110% | 34 |
For a powerful PSU Antec starts very softly at only 18 dB(A) at 10% load. So we can confirm that the PWM fan has a good regulation. From 10 to 50% load it is still hardly audible. Only with full load or more the fan gets annoyingly loud.
| Temperature | ||
| Load | Ambient | Exhaust |
| 10% | 26°C | 30°C |
| 20% | 26°C | 30°C |
| 50% | 26°C | 30°C |
| 80% | 26°C | 31°C |
| 100% | 26°C | 32°C |
| 110% | 26°C | 34°C |
The temperatures were always better than expected and delta (t) is not more than 8° at full load. You can easily see why the fan gets much louder with 50% load or more. The temperatures begin to increase quickly and the heatsink is finally at capacity, requiring more airflow to keep it cooled.
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bobbozzo - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
Most houses in the US have 20A circuits, but 15A outlets.Klinky1984 - Saturday, July 10, 2010 - link
A lot of people buying this probably don't need 1200 watts. There is some prestige to having a 1.2kW PSU, but what kind of system is really going to stress this power supply? Maybe if you got one of those 7x PCIe x16 motherboards and created a GPU distributed computing number cruncher, perhaps. But I'd think a more typical tri-SLI setup would have problems pushing 50% usage on this thing.Klinky1984 - Saturday, July 10, 2010 - link
Well, perhaps I underestimated the power-fatty Fermi is.cactusdog - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
This doesnt appeal, there are much better options out there with truly silent 140mm fans. Most new high end PSUs are going back to a single rail too.HOOfan 1 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
>most new high end PSUs are going back to single railI wouldn't say that at all....some companies want single rail, but I think MOST is a serious exaggeration.
Why does it matter anyway?
Stuka87 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
If you buy a cheap supply, its going to be cheap. Regardless of the brand. I have a mid-range Antec and I have been very happy with it. Its quiet, and it weighs about 3x more than the cheaper PSU it replaced.doctormonroe - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
I'm not a big fan of having less than a 120mm fan, but the reviewer covered it when he said that you'd hear the rest of the system before a 1200W PSU under load.I'm glad that you've stopped using the charts that were in previous articles (as they were not easy to read and comprehend), but good charts are much better than tables, so hopefully soon you'll figure out a good chart to use.
HOOfan 1 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
Yeah...that happens. It happens with anything...especially with electronics.What model was it? If it was REALLY one of their halo products, I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that it was built cheaply.
Of course you have some people who think the PSU is such a simple design and that there is no excuse for a well built PSU to fail. People like that just make me roll my eyes...and usually ignore them from then on.
Martimus - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
Antec used to have a reputation for using low temperature Caps that would fail at actual operating temperatures over time. I had assumed that they stopped doing this, but it is possible that they still use this practice.TGressus - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
In general the more popular ODMs will have a portfolio of designs. Some better than others. In my experience this is where some of the vendors get away with shady practices. Entry level components get hidden within a shiny exterior, marketed as something they are not and no one is the wiser.I'd like to see the status quo among reviewers/enthusiasts change to focus on relative comparison, and historical performance of the ODM models inside PSUs. As it stands now we tend to focus on a visual inspection, and essentially a second wave of manufacturer QC testing.
When we discuss SSD or GPU we consider the chipset first, and the brand second. This enables the community to make better informed decisions, and allows us to steer trends in product development, rather than the vendor hooride that is the PSU market.